The large scale integration of a number of devices or circuits allows numerous functions to be carried out within a single integrated circuit. On the one hand, semiconductor dies or chips can be made larger to accommodate a larger number of circuits and corresponding functions. Conversely, significant improvements in lithography techniques have been achieved in order to make the existing circuits smaller so that additional circuits can be formed within a chip, without utilizing a larger-sized semiconductor chip. In order to utilize the functions provided by the circuits formed within the chip, I/O pins or ports are necessary. In some situations, if additional I/O pins are needed, then they are simply added to the chip as a metallic pad or pin. It can be appreciated that, based on a given size of the semiconductor die, only a reasonable number of I/O pins can be accommodated. Some integrated circuits, especially those that are microprocessor-based, have more than one hundred I/O pins. The I/O pins can be formed not only on the edge of the chip, but also on the planer face of the chip.
A problem exists when there are more signals or functions than corresponding pins available to the integrated circuit. One practice has been to multiplex a few number of signals, such as two or three, with respect to a single I/O pin. The multiplexing is carried out by a simple logic circuit that selects one of the three signals to use the I/O pin at any given time. Although this limited I/O pin sharing feature provides a certain degree of flexibility, there exists other situations in which this solution is not acceptable. There are various applications in which an integrated circuit provides more functions than can be accommodated by a full pin-out integrated circuit. In such situations, it is often the case that not all functions are required at the same time. In other applications, different users require the standard integrated circuit to be packaged with fewer than the standard number of I/O pins. In both applications, the dilemma is not easily overcome.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that a need exists for a technique to improve the flexibility by which the various signals or functions of an integrated circuit device are made available to the I/O pins. Another need exists for a switch matrix that allows many different signals or functions to be applied to many different I/O pins, while yet minimizing the semiconductor area utilized.